Letters From No One
by Copywrite
Summary: A proper girl is bread to be quiet, even if she's not.  When such a girl finds herself in a world filled with flying boys, pirates, and Indians, she comes face to face with a horrible man.  Will she give up the Lost Boys to him or her memory? M for V,S,R
1. Chapter 1: The Girl at the Door

Letters From No One

The envelope fluttered under the lid of the mailbox, the words scrawled across the front were simple.

_To You._

There was a sudden flash of light and the wind riffled the envelope again. There was a sudden moment where everything seemed to stop, the air didn't stir, the very surroundings seemed to stand still for an instant and then as if it had never happened everything began to move again. A woman stood only a few feet in front of the doorstep. The man watching through the curtains never saw her approach or even where she came from, but there she stood, staring at the door.

For a moment he thought she was wearing a dress until he saw the emerald cloak and the boots that were visible beneath it. The shadow he'd assumed came from the tree behind her proved to be an overside hat with an enormous feather in the band rested on her head. He almost thought that the late hour was beginning to get to him until, after rubbing his eyes she still stood there.

For a moment she stood there, watching the door, until finally she started toward the door and pushed her cloak back. The clothes underneath were blocked by the hedge as she reached the front step, extending her hand toward the mailbox and drawing the letter from it.

He moved as quickly as he could, racing from the window to the front door and throwing it wide in hopes of catching the odd looking woman before she could vanish into the night again. The doorstep was empty, and there was no evidence of her ever being there other then the open lid of the mailbox, a thick sheath of paper rolled and set inside.

He took it without question. While it was nearly three times thicker then the longest letter he'd gotten before then, he knew that it contained something he wanted to read, something he needed to know. The front page was a letter addressed to him.

_My dearest Mr. Barrie,_

_I remember you once said that inspiration comes in the strangest of forms, that the letters I began to leave you so long ago had inspired you to write a book and give my nameless friends true Christian names. I thank you for that. I have found a copy of this book, Wendy, that is a lovely name, I thank you for bestowing it to the girl whom I inspired._

_I must admit however you make my dear one handed Captain Hook into an unfeeling man, and that he never has been. Cold, ruthless, full of anger, but never unfeeling. Never without compassion. His single minded quest was never explained to you in full I fear, and therefore you seem to think that he and his boy counterpart are without justification in their feelings. In fact I see that both the captain and the boy, your Peter, have more then justified themselves on both sides._

_Would you like to know the story my dear friend?_

_Would you like to hear a horror beyond the words a woman may posses? An adventure that shakes the bones and stirs the soul? A truth more unimaginable then the amazing fiction you have wrought?_

He reread the sentences again, would he like to? He would risk his own eyes to read the story she promoted so eloquently, the story he knew waited on the pages behind the letter he now read.

_I was right to leave my letters with you mister Barrie._

_- Your Wendy Lady_

He lifted the top page and set it on the small table near the door, closing the heavy oak front door without any thought as he read that first line.

_To begin a story one must always have a beginning, without which there is no hope of ever reaching an end..._


	2. Chapter 2: Through the Streets of London

Letters From No One

- Thanks Thunder, I really do hate wikipedia sometimes...

- After the first few weeks of school I wil be back into more of a writing mindse as right now I'm adjusting to collage and it's a bit odd, thank you for those that are baring with me.

A woman of proper upbringing was expected to be quiet, modest, and most of all constantly attended. A woman of proper upbringing was meant to be controlled. She was always to appear and act as a proper woman. She was never to be allowed outside the house without supervision, let alone at night.

She was breaking every imaginable rule set down by society.

She slipped down the back staircase of their small brownstone, her face covered in the shadow from the hat she wore. She was overjoyed that the small servant boy was just about her height and only a little bigger then she. There had never been a time in her life that she had enjoyed her small size and stature before these nights.

These nights, they had begun a few weeks before when her mother and father had told her that she was to be married. Marriage was something that she had never looked forward to, even before she had come of age but now that it was on the horizon it seemed to be a monster baring down on her. With her mother's mind so occupied with the upcoming wedding and her father's attempts to mingle with her husband to be' family the fact that she had begun sneaking out after any other proper woman would be asleep had gone unnoticed.

Even as she crept down the steps she knew her father was smoking in the front room with the man, James, that had asked for her hand in marriage and that her mother was asleep in the room upstairs. The only thing she could hear besides the men's forced laughter was the occasional shuffle of feet in the kitchen just off the back stair.

The narrow stairwell seemed even more confining then usual as it amplified every sound from below and made her own breath sound like it was a great growl every time she dared to exhale. She was in sight of the back door, only a few feet from freedom when it happened.

She stepped from the bottom step and a small boy no more then five years old came around the corner to meet her, his eyes searching the unexpected face to see if he recognized it. It was the maid's son, a very well mannered little boy of no more then five that always fed the cats and kept the hunting dogs clean. Even though she knew he couldn't tell who she was without her makeup and her hair hidden she wanted to smile at him, those adorably blue eyes half hidden under long blonde hair.

He opened his mouth to say something and she brought a finger to her lips, shushing him silently. He obeyed and watched as she walked to the door and opened it, slipping out into the quiet of the night as quietly as possible. As she turned back to the door she waved to him and he smiled at her, waving wildly as he turned and began to pull himself up the stairs.

There was a quiet click as she pulled the door shut and all but ran for the short back wall, jumping and managing to catch the opposite ledge as she scrambled up the smooth stone. The crates that were always lined along the other side made returning so much simpler, but to leave without the key to the gate this was the only way. She swung her knee wildly and caught it on the topper as well, pulling herself up with a little difficulty.

When she finally seat herself on the wall, one leg on either side as she tried to catch her breath she looked around. The sky overhead was dark and ominous as it lit up for an instant and fell dark again. For an instant she thought better of leaving with such a promise of a storm but the thought of going back to her room sent her over the wall and down the crates with a bound, racing off in any direction so long as it was away.

She stopped after a short distance, ignoring the few lit windows she had noticed to massage a stitch in her side. The corset was making her head swim wildly as she tried to breath but she was used to such feelings. She looked in both directions down the street and realized she was very close to the gardens. Kensington was always so lovely at this time of year.

She turned down the street and walked much slower, her hands stuffed in the pockets of the oversized trousers, the suspenders keeping them at her hips and helping to hide what curves she had. The pants only just reached her knees but the shoes she'd taken came most of the way up her legs and made the outfit only slightly uncomfortable. Even as she walked she tried to pull the trousers down and close the gap with little success.

The soft soles of her borrowed shoes clicked slightly on the stones as she entered the park, looking around at the plants with a broad smile. She stopped and considered the roses growing on one side of the path but looked up suddenly as a flash of lightening and a crash of thunder seemed to rip the sky in half and lose a torrent of rain. Without thinking she raced off along the path, looking for somewhere she could shelter from the rain and cursing the fact that a male servant wouldn't carry an umbrella.

She came into an empty circle of cobblestone, paths leading off in every direction and turned this way and that, looking for a promising path only to find each looking the same as the next, and finally losing track of which one she had came down to begin with. What started the tears she didn't know, proper women were only taught to cry when they knew it could be to their favor or they were desperately upset, but cry she did.

With the tears and the rain she began to shout, words she knew she wasn't supposed to know but had heard the coachmen use on many occasions. Her side began to throb again and she rubbed it with a palm, a sharp pain shooting across her chest when she breathed. "I don't want to... I don't even know him..." She had never been a particularly emotional girl but everything seemed to come gushing out at once. "If this is what it means to grow up I don't ever want to grow up!"

With a great gulp if air she felt herself falling and tried to catch herself only to find herself laying sidelong in a pool of gathering rain water. "I don't want to..."

There was a flash much like the lightening before but without the immediate follow of thunder and she thought she saw a face, a young boy like the one at her house. Someone nearby called out 'Tootles' and the face swam away as the edges of her vision blurred.


	3. Chapter 3: The Forest Closing In

Letters From No One

- Hi Brianna! Go English class!

She didn't know what she was hearing at first, but she was very aware that her hat had been removed and that she was lying on grass. "We're sorry!"

"We didn't know!"

Scrambling feet.

"Please don't hurt us!"

"We're sorry, we're sorry!"

The ring of metal scraping metal.

"I'm going to have to kill you for this, then I'll have to take her back myself."

"No please!"

More running and tripping.

"We didn't mean to!"

"No... don't..." She murmured as she realized what they were saying. She felt her eyes opening and closing, her thoughts drifting back and forth from where she was to where she had been. Her clothes were dry, as was the grass she was laying on. She didn't understand what was happening until her hands moved to her head to rub at her eyes. She wasn't in the Garden anymore, she didn't recognize the voices she was hearing.

She opened her eyes quickly and saw a boy looking back at her, his blue eyes startlingly bright in the darkness that surrounded her. "Get away!" She yelled, scrambling back away from him, desperately trying to get away from whomever this was.

"Wait lady..."

"Get away!" She turned to try and get up, run, maybe even crawl away from this, but she found herself face to face with another boy. "Stay back!" She said as she scrambled back the other way.

"Lady... your hat..." Came a little voice from one side.

"Lady, why are you yelling.."

"Lady..."

She stared at them as they closed in around her, maybe five or more of them, but her eyes were focused on the blue eyed boy that had been standing in front of her when she woke. He was carrying her hat as he floated toward her. "Lady why are you crying?"

"I'm not..." She brought her hand up to her face and felt tear rolling down her cheeks. Why was she crying?

"We'll take you back."

She stared at the blue eyed boy who was smiling at her, walking toward her with the hat in his hand. "We can take you back now if you like, Neverland is not the place for ladies. Where is it that you come from?"

"I come from the back door... over the wall, and through the gardens..." She asked quietly as she reached out and took the hat he held toward her. She paused for a long moment, "Neverland?"

He nodded and a boy beside him with red and black hair said quickly, "It's a place where you never have to grow up!" He fell silent again when the blue eyed boy shot him a glare.

"Never grow up...?" The idea of it thrilled her but even then she couldn't help but wonder, "Who are you all?"

"We are the lost boys." The blue eyed boy said brightly, motioning to the boys that surrounded her. They all bowed and tried to introduce themselves at the same time, a pair of twins, two older boys that looked to be a few years older then she was, the boy with two different hair colors.

"Slightly!"

"Nibs miss."

"Tootles."

"I'm Rufio."

"I'm first."

"I'm second!"

The name that was conspicuously missing was the blue eyed boy's name. "But who are you?"

He raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. "He's the first!" The loudest boy exclaimed. "The Farie's child, son of pan!"

She looked at the boys who all nodded their agreement to these names. "That's all well and fine, but what is your real name?" She asked, brushing something from her hat.

"Those are my names." He said with a mischievous grin, "I'm known by all of them and none of them!" Everything around them seemed to glow with his happy tone and for a moment she swore his feet left the ground, just an inch.

"But what did your mother call you?"

The glow she'd thought she'd seen was gone and he was standing firmly on the ground. "We don't know what our mothers called us." He glanced at the other boys several of which also seemed crest fallen by the question.

"How can you not know what you're called?" She managed to stand up and realized that, despite her short stature, they were nearly the same height. "Surely you have to answer to it when you see her..."

"We don't have mothers." Said the black and red headed boy.

One of the two twins spoke in a rather dubious tone despite the look from his brother. "We fell out of our prams." He jostled the other twin as he tried to hush him. "We wanted to run away from everything that our parents wanted for us."

She crouched down slightly to his level and smiled at him, he looked almost like the boy fro her kitchen, "But how did you get here?"

"I brought them." Said the boy as he folded his arms behind his head. "I was brought by Tinkerbell, she saved me when I was sure I was to die." A small ball of light seemed to appear from the sky itself and dropped down to hang in front of her. There was a strange chime like sound and the light danced and flickered and finally flew to the blue eyed boy. "She want's to know your name."

"Oh!" She stood up quickly, gathering what material from her pants she could and curtseying. "My name is Moragan DeCroix."

"Moragan?" The blue eyed boy said questioningly. "Like Morgan?"

"Yes, like Morgan Le Fay." She twisted her hair and held it to her head, pulling the hat down over it.

"Le Fay?" He seemed to consider it a moment and quite suddenly lifted his feet from the ground and folded his legs as if he were seated on the ground. "I like it! Too French sounding though, what about the Fay!" There was a great clamor of appreciation from those listening to him think out loud, all the while she was staring at his feet which rested on nothing at least two feet from the ground. "Let's have an adventure to celebrate!" Another roar brought her back to reality as the boys all began racing around gathering things she hadn't noticed before.

"Boy..." She tried to think of anything else to call him but it seemed the only thing that would fit. "I have one last question, did she..." She looked at Tinkerbell who was absolutely ringing with all the words that she didn't understand, "Did she bring me here as well?"

"No, the boys did." He said, lounging back against the nothingness again and stared up into the night sky, "They heard the same thing I did when they were lost, a cry to be taken from it all. Away from the troubles of growing up and being what your parents want you to." He looked at her, "You did say you wanted to be away didn't you?"

She opened her mouth to answer but in an instant he was right in front of her, his hand covering her mouth and a finger pressed to his lips. The other boys seemed to have heard or seen the same thing and they all had dropped to the ground, each reaching for the bow they had slung over a shoulder or tied to their backs.

She stood as still as she could, waiting for the boy to release her so that she could hide as well but he simply floated there beside her, his hand covering her mouth. Then she heard it as well, a great breathing, like a thousand angry creatures bearing down on them from all sides. "Ready?" He asked as he grabbed a hold of her arm.

"For what?" She whispered back in a hiss, not sure what was happening.

"On my signal boys." He breathed. "Ready, and..."

Everything seemed still, even the world seemed to stop for that silent instant and then, as if that instant had never happened the world suddenly rushed back with the boy's cry of , "Now!"

The boys moved just as the trees and bushes around them came to life with the cries and the movement of grown men. The first few fell instantly to the arrows the boys let lose and several of the boys vanished into the forest. Despite all of this excitement she never saw it as she was whisked up into the air, everything happening on the ground hidden by the trees that were so far below her now. "Are you alright?" Came the voice from somewhere above her as she was taken along by the wrist.

"I very much think I don't like flying!" She answered as she felt her feet brush along the tops of the trees they were slowly nearing. She lifted her free hand and held her hat to her head as they wen, sure it would blow away if she didn't.

"You have to think of happy things or you will surely fall!"

Her eyes widened in horror as she looked down below her at the tops of the trees. "Could we maybe land again?"

The boy laughed loudly and they dove back into the forest who knows how far from the place they had left. She was so excited to see land, and he so excited to see her smiling rather then looking horrified, neither of them noticed what else was on the ground to which they headed.

They landed laughing and without any concern for what was around them. She turned to him to ask what would become of the boys that had remained to fight whomever had surrounded them when she felt a pair of hands close around her arms. She was lifted from the ground and without thinking her eyes went to the boy, and she mouthed simply, 'Run!'. Somehow she knew that this boy was not to be caught, if only from the way the other boys had treated him before. If nothing else he had saved he and she owed him this.

He was gone in an flash of green and brown and blonde hair, and very shortly he was gone and out of sight.

She never felt herself being lowered to the ground, it might have been that she was too busy watching him fly away, but when her feet finally hit the ground again and she was turned to face the rather ugly man that had grabbed her she regretted it. Another man appeared a short distance away, apparently having been chasing the boy. She struggled as hard as she could against the man's grip and felt his fingers slip away from her arms as she fought against them.

He released her rather suddenly and she stumbled blindly away from him and squarely into something else. She looked up in horror to find a very tall, dark haired man staring down at her from under a large black hat with red and black feathers. What caught her attention however was not his height or his fearsome look, but the eyes with which he stared at her. She was so taken back by the blue of those eyes she didn't even think to run as she stood there unbound. Her chest and ribs began to throb just as they had when she was running before, although where she no longer remembered.

"And who are you?"

The question spurred her to motion and she tried to turn and run but found the large man's arm around her shoulders, trapping her against his chest. Her breath came even shallower as she tried to pull away from him only to find herself trapped more tightly.

" S'one a them boys Cap'in!" Said one of the men.

"Boys?" Came the man's calm drawl. "This is not a boy." He reached up and pulled her hat off to reveal her hair which reached down to her shoulder blades. "In fact I don't recall ever seeing this one before, I say you're a bit to old to have just fallen from your pram." She was shoved forward toward the other men who quickly grabbed her up and held her by the arms. "Take her to the cabin and leave her there, I'll see to her after the others."

She screamed as loudly as she could before a hand was clamped over her mouth, her arms held tight despite her struggles, and she found herself being carried away, her vision turning foggy and finally closing into blackness.


	4. Chapter 4: Fire and Sugar

Letters From No One

She was rocking, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, on and on, but it wasn't a rocking she was used to. Footsteps sounded with every rock, and then there was silence again. That emptyness that came with sleep. When it lifted again she heard the sounds of drinks being poured and mixed, something she often heard when her father returned home and she slept on the couch.

Something in her mind told her she should smell olive wood polish, in and brandy, but instead she smelled salt, that same thing told her there should be the crackling of a fire and the warm amber glow of its flames, but in their place was the stark silver of moonlight and the erie creaking of wood.

Her eyes opened quickly and she saw the glass sitting in the table only inches before her, the strangely green liquid in it still spinning from the spoon that now sat on top of the glass. The man from the woods, with those hauntingly blue eyes, picked a sugar cube from a small bowl beside a collection of bottles and placed it on the spoon. He sat across the table from her, all but his shoulders and face visible in the moonlight. "You're awake."

Everything in her seemed to go cold as he spoke and she didn't dare to move or answer him as he lifted another bottle and poured a silver liquid over the sugar cube and into the glass. "I can see your eyes are open, there's no use to staying still and acting otherwise." He drew a silver match case from his pocket and opened it to reveal that it was nearly overflowing. He took out a match and struck it on the bottom of the container, watching as it flared to life. "What is your name?"

She stared fixedly at the match, something about it transfixing as she watched the flame flicker and dance in the darkness. He turned the match in his fingers as she watched it and finally snapped it in half and closed it in his hand, the flame dieing as quickly as it had come to life. "Moragan."

He took out another match and struck it, just as he had before. "Moragan." He tuned the match again, her eyes still focused on it. "French?"

"Originally." She said quietly as he crumpled this match the same as the first. "My mother's version of Morgana I believe..."

Another match came to life, carefully held far enough away from the man's face that he couldn't be seen by it's light. "Well, Moragan, you may sleep in there." He motioned to a small walled off area near one side of the room which she could see held a large, maroon covered bed. "I will come in at some point tonight and when I do I will ask you one question and one only, choose your answer wisely." He touched the match to the sugar cube and it burst into flames, he quickly tipped the spoon and the sugar cube fell into the drink. The surface of the drink danced with flames and he lifted the small glass and with a quick breath extinguished the flames and swallowed the drink in a single gulp.

She watched as he stood from his chair and replaced the empty glass, not their to look at her as he started for the door. "Take advantage of this hospitality, it will not be offered again." He was out the door, pulling a long black coat on as the door swung shut behind him.

She watched as the door shut and there was a click as the lock was turned and she was locked in the cabin. She stared at the door for a long moment and when she was sure he was gone she stood and put a hand to her ribs, the corset biting into her skin where she had lay on it wrong. She pulled up at the back of her shirt until she found the tie of the corset and pulled at the strings until the knot came undone and the corset loosened around her and she took in a deep gulp of air. She needed to get it off so she could lay down, wait for her fate, being able to breath.

She managed to work several loops of the string loose, taking a deeper breath with every inch the corset gave her. She had never felt such a need to remove the thing in her life. When she finally reached the topmost tie she reached over her shoulder and undid the top bow, pulling the strings free from their loops and working the damnable thing out from under the borrowed shirt, unceremoniously tossing it under the short table that stood before her.

She stood and walked to the small window that offered the only line of sight onto the deck, only to find it unoccupied except for that man, standing well over six feet and all in black, even his hair. She watched him for a moment as he stood there, staring at something off in the distance that she couldn't see, and finally he looked back toward the cabin.

She pulled back away from the window, and turned to examine the room, hoping that he hadn't seen her watching him, her heart pounding in her throat. There were tables and desks and globes scattered around the room, many of the tables and desks were covered in boxes of supplies and mapping equipment, the table that sat in front of the couch was half covered in an assortment of bottles and a small number of glasses.

None of this made any sense to her, she neither drank nor knew how to navigate, but eventually her eyes found that bed again. It was neatly made with the sheets turned down at the pillows to allow anyone that might use it to slide easily under the blankets. She must admit her back ached from laying so awkwardly on the couch as she had. Slowly, with a glance out the window to be sure he wasn't returning to the cabin, she walked across to the bed and let herself fall onto it.

She'd never felt a mattress so relaxing in her life.

Her ribs expanded as they never had in the corset and her back seemed to stretch itself out as she lay there on her back, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the unusual moment of comfort. It almost felt like home... But rather then the smell of Jasmine that always graced her room at home she smelt only alcohol and the salty sting of the sea air. Even that seemed relaxing as her mind worked back from that moment in the forest, back to the nameless garden, to the wall that she climbed from a yard, to the door that led to an unfamiliar house...


	5. Chapter 5: To Heed a Warning

For anyone reading both of my stories I will update them when I have time to re-write the next chapters as my laptop got a virus recently and I can't get onto the internet to post the finished versions. I am working on it I swear

Letters From No One

He turned the page again and found, much to his surprise, another letter.

_Now my dear Mister Barrie, I will warn you before you proceed and tell you a few things I have since learned happened on that night. There are many things that you should know and many more you'll wish you hadn't, but such are the ways of life._

_I must, before you continue, warn you of the events to come. I must insist you think no less of me or anyone involved, they and indeed I did not know what was to happen to me. I will tell you this my friend, the Captain, while being a naturally calm man enjoys his drink, and often forgets himself if the day has been a bit too long for his liking. I wish I could say that what I will reveal about the events of that questioning were lies, that I am making it up, but you insisted on reading this far and should you go forward take each word for only what it is, a word. Please do not judge me, or my dear captain, as things happen to all of us that are out of our control. Some things however are worse then others._

_With that Mister Barrie I will tell you several things I know now that happened that night. For some time I slept and while I did the Captain stood out on the deck and, with the help of his older first mate, the man you call Smee, drank the hours away. He spoke to the first mate of the nature of this land, Neverland… He said that such a place was not meant for humans, especially the young. Should a human remain too long their memories will begin to slip from their grasp, and eventually they will forget everything until the day they finally grow up, should that day ever come. The magic of the place is to allow those wishing to escape the chance to do just that, leaving everything, including themselves behind them._

_I also know now that the boy from the forest, the fairy child, came to see what had become of me. He did not get close enough to the window to tap upon it and take me away, nor could he walk through the door with the captain standing there. So he was forced to simply look in through the window to be sure I was alive and fly away as quickly as he could. He did however leave me something that night, a small golden pocket watch that had once hung from my suspender and hidden itself in the borrowed pockets of my costume. The pocket watch with the initials RD engraved in the front. The initials of my fiancé._

_Please, Mister Barrie, keep these things in mind as you proceed, and so remember that there are others in the world with worse stories then even mine._

_Your Wendy Lady_

A warning? He turned the page again and there was the next part of the story, printed just as the previous pages had been.


	6. Chapter 6: Will and Won't

so everyone knows, that warning was not just to fill in, from here on the story gets a bit dark… if you don't want to read about drinking, abuse, or rape/sexual innuendoes, don't go any farther because all these things will be happening from this point on. If you'd be offended then don't read it cause I really don't want to hear about it. I don't approve of it but it makes for good stories. Thank you.

Letters From No One

She was standing in the middle of a cobble stone street in some far away unfamiliar town. There was nothing about but a small lantern in the distance, but as she moved toward it she found a wall. It must have stood ten feet tall and all but impossible to climb from where she stood.

She looked left and saw nothing but the wall, right, the same. She looked up then and found a boy, his face hidden in the darkness, all but his eyes, and he reached out to her. She lifted her hand toward him, half expecting to be given something, but he snatched her up by the wrist and they were off, flying high into the darkness. They flew so high she almost lost sight of the light, until finally they turned and spun and were headed straight for it. It was only just beyond the wall and she could almost reach it now…

Then something great and darker even then the black around her shot out from the wall, wrapping her in it and pulling her from the boy and into itself. She could hear it moving, feel it brush against her neck, smell the salty bitter scent of it as it tried to smother her. She couldn't get out, it was wrapped around her and pulling her down into it, farther from the light. She was doomed.

She sat up with her eyes wide and her breathing ragged, noticing the blanket she had been laying on drop off of her shoulders and come to rest on the bed. Everything was dark but outlined in a harsh silver. She looked around as she tried to place the room in her mind, small, wooden walls and ceiling, gold and red and black everywhere… A man standing in the half open window.

It was the captain, a half gone glass of something in his hand, and a strange look on his face as he stared out the window. As she looked at him it was clear he had either forgotten she was there, or didn't care. He had removed his hat and coat, and with them his boots and shirt. She turned a bright pink as she watched him stand there in only his breeches, sipping his drink and utterly ignoring her. Despite the fact that she knew she should be looking away she took the chance to examine him, if only just for the sake of curiosity. At the very least that was what she told herself.

He was tall and thin and, she couldn't help but notice, well muscled. Even in the black and gray of the moonlight she could tell his skin was tanned, dark like his hair and lay very nicely over his frame, but what made her stop examining and stare was his back. He had shifted a little and now she could see it clearly, where there had been minute scars on the rest of him there were large and nasty looking ones here. She watched as he lifted his drink, the muscles and skin moving and stretching to make the scars look even bigger. She realized then that she was staring at him and turned away with a bright pink tinge to her cheeks. What was he doing? She shouldn't be put in this kind of situation until she was married, and even then it was never to be spoken f or even thought about unless with the man she was married to…. Wasn't it?

"You'll be given proper clothes in the morning." He spoke into the glass before taking a drink from it. "A woman aughten run around in boys clothes."

She turned to look at him again, proper clothes? Was she to be given a dress and dolled up like she always had been? Or had she ever been dressed that way? "How did you know me for a girl?" She turned a little on the bed to face him as if that might answer her question.

He smiled a little and there was a strange humor in his voice, "It's much easier to fool the eyes then the hands."

"The hands…?" Then he'd felt the ribbing of her corset, or had it been her… She turned a shade of red she was sure matched the sheets. "You shouldn't say such things!" She looked at the floor, no one had ever said such things. "It's not polite to talk like…" She nearly dove off the bed as the glass flew past her head and shattered against the far wall, its contents running down the wood toward the floor. She managed to catch herself mostly on the sheets and was leaning over the side of the bed.

"You'll do well to remember I am the captain of this ship and as such I give the orders." His voice was quiet and almost frightening as he stared at her.

She pulled herself up to stand there, staring at him. She glanced across at the door and took a step toward it, watching as he stayed where he stood. "That was not needed." She spoke in barely more then a whisper, trying to get her voice louder and failing miserably, "You could have hurt me or yourself…" He took a step toward her and she moved a little more quickly toward the door. If she could get out of the room, get to the deck, maybe jump overboard?

"Where is he?" The man asked as he continued to approach her.

She had almost reached the door now but he didn't seem concerned. "Where is who?"

She stumbled backward as he stepped to her with unusual speed and smacked her across the face. She was so surprised she backed right into the wall and stood there with her hand to her face, just staring at him. "Where is he?"

"Who?" She asked in a whisper, frightened almost to say it.

"The Ferries child, son of Pan, the Fay!" He stepped right up to her again, and as she tried to back up she found she was pressed against the wall. "The boy that continues to ruin every idea I can imagine!" He took a swing and for a moment she was sure he was about to hit her again, but his hand went wide and struck the door to the side of her head.

"I don't know." She said, her voice still no more then that pathetic whisper. "I don't even know where I am."

He stared at her, bent down a little to be at eye level with her, "If you're hoping to buy time for him to save you…" He reached out with his other hand and wrapped his fingers around her throat, leaning forward until he was almost touching her ear as he whispered to her, "I can make sure you're not worth saving."

She pulled her hand away from her face and started to tug at his fingers as soon as they'd closed around her neck, only succeeding in tightening his fingers. He towered over her, his arm holding him up against the door as he threatened to strangle the life out of her. The most horrifying thing however was her own reaction when he whispered in her ear. She shouldn't have turned her head toward him as if to bring him closer, shouldn't have arched her back a little as if to press up against him, and shouldn't have whished for just an instant that he'd do it again.

But she did.

There was a smile in his voice, "Ah, is that your other talent then?" She was sure she felt his lips on her ear when he whispered again, "You aughten do that to a man who's been at sea as long as I have." His grip loosened and she felt his thumb run down along her neck, then her collarbone, and finally just dip below the collar of her shirt.

She couldn't help the sharp intake of breath when he did it. "Do what?" Her voice was shaking and she moved to push his hand away, this wasn't right… He shouldn't be doing this… but her hand was batted away with little effort.

He laughed and was facing her again if only for an instant before he leaned forward quite suddenly and pressed his lips to hers. She tried to pull her head away but he followed her until her skull connected with the wall. He wasn't even trying to be kind and gentle about it. For a second time her body betrayed her and she rocked away from the wall a little just to press against him, an action he quickly returned, and her head tilted back as he pressed right against her.

No! This wasn't supposed to be happening, she didn't want this! She put a hand to his chest and tried to push him back but for all her effort he didn't even seem to notice. She curled her tiny hand, as compared to his, into a fist and beat on his chest, trying to force him back. He grabbed her wrist and pinned her arm against the wall as he leaned against her a little more, trapping her other arm outside his. She pounded on his arm with her free hand as he let his fingers begin to wander but it was no use. He was at least a foot taller and could easily have lifted her over his head if he liked.

There was nothing for it.


End file.
